Blanket and The Gracemakers EP are now available on iTunes.

www.facebook.com/thegracemakers | www.myspace.com/thegracemakers

Australian Industrial Djent Metal Masters,
SYNTHETIC BREED return with the newly titled
“ZERO DEGREES FREEDOM” digital EP release…
“When joining SYNTHETIC BREED in April 2011, M. literally had one
month to learn our show and we were on the road for the Perpetual Motion
Machine Australian tour. That more or less took us to the end of 2011.
Throughout the PMM tour, M. was incorporating more and more of her own
unique style to the material. Following the tour, the idea for a new EP was
conceived. M. has recorded vocals over some older material, not as a means
of comparison at all, but more of a preview of what people can expect on our
next album which will be released late 2012/very early 2013.”
“ZERO DEGREES FREEDOM” will consist of three “re-worked”
PERPETUAL MOTION MACHINE tracks, one CATATONIC track plus
one previously unreleased, new song.
“ZERO DEGREES FREEDOM” DIGITAL EP WILL BE AVAILABLE
FOR DOWNLOAD AND LIMITED USB RELEASE FROM MAY 5TH
2012.
WWW.SYNTHETICBREED.COM

 (Matt Ryan)

 (Matt Ryan)

At the risk of stating the blatantly obvious, American rock band Switchfoot are far from the heaviest band on the Soundwave bill. They’re also probably the least debaucherous and party-ready band in the lineup, with all members being staunch Christians. With all that said, they may seem an interesting choice for a massive bill chock-full of ungodly, murderously heavy bands such as Meshuggah, Slipknot, Lamb of God and Gojira. But bassist and backing vocalist Tim Foreman, speaking from his home in San Diego, welcomes the challenge of playing alonside such brutality, and is very confident they will give an excellent account of themselves.

“No, we like mixing it up like that,” he states with conviction, “we’ve been playing on those types of bills our entire career. Especially over here in the States. We grew up going to punk and metal shows, those are the shows that really got us into music as kids, you know? We’re honoured to be on the bill, and I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun!

“We do a lot of these type of festivals,” he continues, “here in the States and over in Europe as well. You get to see a lot of bands in one day, which we enjoy just as much as the people who buy tickets to go do. We’re fans of the music just like everyone else, and a lot of the times it becomes a big reunion back stage. You see a lot of bands you played with in the past, so it’s always good times!”

Not only have they played on many bills of this nature in the past, the band tend to switch things up for these type of festivals, and bring their hardest rocking A-game to the fold, as Tim explains.

“Well for Soundwave, we’re gonna be bringin’ our rock!” he foretells, “and so it’ll be a pretty high energy show. We tend to just go for it onstage. Jon (Foreman, Tim’s brother and the band’s frontman) is one of those frontmen where you never know whether he’s going to jump into the drum set, or dive into the crowd! Anything can happen, and that’s what I love about it, the recklessness of just getting onstage and going for it.

“We’re doing some headline shows while we’re over there as well,” he says, “we’ll be able to catch our breathe with those, and mix it up a little, be a little bit more diverse. Songs from the entire career that we’ve been a band.”

Speaking of which, it’s been a solid decade and a half that Switchfoot have been around. And it’s been a pretty damn successful career to boot, with eight highly successful albums, a Grammy and many other accolades and mutiple chart singles under their collective belts. Tim often finds it hard to believe that so much water has passed under the bridge for the band.

“It sure doesn’t feel like it (15 years since the band formed),” he states, “but I think that’s the truth, I think we just closed 15 years as a band. And that just feels unbelievable to say that.There’s not many bands that I can just rattle off the top of my head that have been around that long. We certainly never expected to be still doing this 15 years later, that’s for sure. So there’s a lot to be thankful for. It’s ironic though, because we still feel like a baby band. We’re still figuring it out, and learning, and we still feel fresh, like we’re still just getting going here!”

Something that keeps them going for so long has been the pure joy of writing new music and releasing albums, and they have been quite prolific in that length of time. Eight albums since their debut was released in 1997 is better than a new record every two years, and they never seem to run out of inspiration to create new sounds and songs.

“Yeah, we love makin’ songs, it’s what keeps us going,” he enthuses, “the music, the songs, all have a story, and I think we write better through hard times than through good. We’ve been through a lot of adversity as a band, and I think music is a great way to deal with that. I guess we write more about things we don’t understand than things we do. And the music that’s always spoken to me as a fan has always been the same way, music that really takes you somewhere.”

Another thing that spurs the band to keep going through tough times has been their faith. Plus while they don’t actually consider themselves a ‘christian band’ as such, it puts them is a very good position, where they are able to appeal to both Christan and non-Christian fans.

“You know, that’s a funny one,” he understates the situation, “we’ve always been completely honest about our beliefs, and where we’re coming from. At the same time people are always trying to put you in boxes. Our music is just honest, it comes from an honest place, of beliefs and doubts and struggles, and I think it’s something that speaks to a lot of people, but not to everyone…we write songs that a lot of people do appreciate, and the ones that don’t, we couldn’t care less about at this point. You kinda have to have that attitude these days, if you’re gonna make music that you believe in.”

Jamey Jasta’s voice sounds like he’s been screaming his lungs out in a brutal hardcore act for almost 20 years. Funny that. He also tells us that there’s no special secret or formula for his band Hatebreed’s extended longevity.

“We just enjoy touring with each other and we enjoy recording records,” he states, “it’s as simple as that. We would probably record more, if it wasn’t so commonplace for us to do a record and go on the road for two years. But I think, with the way that things are changing we’ll do another record this year and then maybe put it out early next year. And then we’ll probably go into the crazy touring again, even though we’re doing so much touring this year. We’re going to Australia, then we’re going to South America with Lamb of God, we’re going to Europe to do the festivals.

“I think the longevity of the band comes from the fact that we stagger it out,” he continues, “we don’t just go to the same places every year. We go every two or three years.”

And it’s not just a case of the band enjoying what they do and keeping things fresh in this way, it’s also an absolute must that the members get along, so that they can spend such long periods of time in each other’s company in the studio and on the road.

“On this last tour with Five Finger Death Punch and All that Remains, they were like ‘you guys all hang out with each other every day!’” he laughs “they thought that was weird! And we were like ‘yeah! We get along!’ But I guess it’s like people who’ve been together for a long time, it’s like a marriage, you stay together for the kids.” he chuckles again, “But for us, I think we’re all very easy to get along with.”

Hatebreed are well known for being one of the most aggressive, pissed off bands around, both musically and lyrically. Jamey agrees that their anger at the world has fuelled the fire in their lyrics and actually given them the strength to carry on as a band through the good times and the bad.

“Yeah, there’s no shortage of injustice in the world,” he concurs, “so long as that’s out there, there’s always something to sing about. Now with the landscape in America, there’s been a lot of doom and gloom, a lot of corporate greed and corruption and poverty and political drama. All that’s going to influence the next Hatebreed record. But there’s good out there as well, you can’t always look at the glass half empty, you still have to have some sort of positive outlook. Because you can’t change the world if you’re not happy with yourself. You have to have a positive mindset before you can change other people’s minds.”

It’s this latter thought that comes out in their lyrics as well, and the band’s fans have defintely appreciated the juxtaposition of anger and the more uplifting messages in their words.

“Yeah, absolutely,” he agrees, “I’ve gotten letters, emails, Facebook messages, Myspace comments for years and years and years, saying that the music has positively affected people. Not to mention we’re building an archive of, we have thousands of tatoos that people have of our lyrics and name. It’s nice to see, you know? The little impact we’ve made, I’m glad to say it’s been more than just headbanging and entertainment. People really take the lyrics to heart, which is nice.”

The band touch down in Australia very shortly to jump onto the massive Soundwave bill, for what will be their eighth or ninth trip Down Under. Jamey is absolutely pumped to return, as they never seem to tire of our country: “Oh yeah I can’t wait,” he enthuses, “it’s gonna be great. We’re getting a lot of good feedback on the Facebook, and all the other social networking sites. People really seems to be really excited to have Hatebreed come back, so it’s awesome.”

Even though they’re coming up on two decades together as a band, Jamey is still extremely optimistic that the band can carry on for a number of years yet. “I’d like to think so!” he foretells, “A while back, I made a comment about doing it when I was sixty, like Lemmy! From non Hatebreed fans that received a lot of negative comments. Like me or not, respect me or not, I’ve done just as many shows as a lot of older bands, if not more. There was years when we did 300 shows in a year. We’re still out there kickin’ ass every night, and I would like to be doing it when I’m that age. I’m not apologetic about thinking that we have the possibility to do that.”

Speaking to the force of nature that is Jamey Jasta, frontman for one of the all time great hardcore bands in history, only a fool would doubt their potential to still be cranking out the tunes in another 15 to 20 years.

Shannon is a child of the 60s, literally. Her parents were deeply involved in the student protests against the Vietnam War and all the risks that involved. But since having children, they settled down and even joined the academia they once despised. Shannon, now in her 30s, is still fighting this conservatism, quitting her Ph.D. to establish a cleaning business, and frequently becoming involved in such social rituals as barroom brawls. Just as she is making peace with her parents, their tortured bodies are found in their burning home. With her dying words Shannon’s mother sends her on a mission to ‘warn the others’. And there begins Shannon’s immersion in the remains of the 1960s counter culture.

This book is truly a page turner. There are enough red herrings form a school. The twists and turns and narrow escapes make this one book that is very difficult to put aside. In fact, once Shannon finds her brother, forget everything else for the rest of the day. And the bad guys? They are appropriately mean and ugly.

I particularly like Shannon’s character. She has grown up in a sheltered existence and her naivete is immense, even though she tries hard to be a bad girl. The bad guys use this innocence to their own advantage, again and again. When she learns what has been done, her anger helps give her focus to do what she has to do.

I can’t say much here without spoiling, but I don’t feel the final twist was handled effectively. I for one needed a few extra clues along the way.

Every film lover has an opinion on director, Roman Polanski (The Ghost Writer, To Each His Own Cinema), but no matter what you think of his personal life you can’t say that he isn’t a brilliant film maker. Just to prove it along comes his new film, Carnage which is nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece.

Based on the award-winning play by Yasmina Reza Carnage looks at the aftermath of what happens after Zachary Cowan (Elvis Polanski – The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, Oliver Twist) strikes his classmate, Ethan Longstreet (Eliot Berger – newcomer) in the face with a stick during a playground altercation.

Zachary’s parents Alan (Christoph Waltz – The Three Musketeers, Water For Elephants) and Nancy (Kate Winslet – Contagion, TV’S Mildred Pierce) go to the home of Ethan’s parents, Michael (John C. Reilly – We Need To Talk About Kevin. Terri) and Penelope (Jodie Foster – The Beaver, Nim’s Island) in a bid to discuss what should be done about the matter.

Agreements are made and accusations fly, as does the projectile vomit at times, and while both sets of parents are determined to get an outcome they just can’t come to a final solution and the whole meeting turns into a debacle.

Polanski doesn’t attempt to do too much with Carnage. He films it like a play, in the cofounds of the Longstreet home and he smartly lets the dialogue lead the way. Lovers of action will be turned off by Carnage because it literally lets the dialogue do the talking. Luckily, Reza’s script holds up on the big screen and with some immaculate timing Carnage ends up calling on all the things that made films such as Who’s Afraid Of Virgina Woolfe? and Twelve Angry Men such classics.

Also adding to Carnage is some some sensational acting. Kate Winslet in terrific and as you would expect Waltz and Foster are at the top their games. What will come as a surprise to some (but not to those who have seen Terri and We Need To Talk About Kevin) is that John C. Reilly holds his own. Over the last two years Reilly has chosen roles that cement him amongst the best dramatic actors around at the moment, and that trend continues here. He is no longer that comedic actor who seemed to always choose dodgy roles.

Carnage is a sensational watch for the serious movie goer. Great dialogue and brilliant acting make this an absolute gem.

Year: 2012

Director: Roman Polanski

Stars: Christoph Waltz, Kate Winslet, Jodie Foster, John C. Reilly, Elvis Polanski, Eliot Berger

Classification: M

Runtime: 79 mins

Rating:

If you loved Girl With The Dragon Tattoo then you’ll also want to sit down and see Headhunters… as it’s the best Scandinavian thriller to surface since The Millenium series. Headhunters will have you constantly trying to guess what happens next and to the filmmakers credit this is a film that leaves you asking no questions.

Roger Brown (Aksel Hennie – Age Of Heroes, A Somewhat Gentle Man) suffers from small-man syndrome. He feels due to his lack of height that the only way he can keep his beautiful wife, Diana (Synnove Macody Lund – newcomer) from straying is to buy her love with expensive gifts. However, his wages as a corporate headhunter doesn’t allow for this so he moonlights as an art thief that has all the local Police scratching their heads.

Then enters Clas Greve (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau – Blackthorn, At World’s End) a business mogul, who is paying far too much attention to Diana and has an extremely rare art piece in his collection. He is obvious target for Roger but is it wise to steal from a man who is a creator of GPS technology and is trained by the army to find people?

When the team of screenwriters handed director, Morten Tyldum (Fallen Angels, Buddy) the script for Headhunters he must have been licking his lips, because after just one read he would have been able to tell that he was now at the helm of the best suspense-thrillers to surface in a long time.

Headhunters delivers the best of two worlds. The script is calculating and suspenseful and it’s violence doesn’t hold back. There are no ‘nice’ guys here, everybody is willing to kill to get what they want and Tyldum doesn’t hold back from showing graphic ‘after-scenes’ of a car accident or even the odd head-shot.

The script never allows for the audience to get too comfortable. You can never predict what will happen next, and for most of the film you can’t even work out who is friend or foe. Also outstanding is the fact that the writers make Roger such a hero when you already know that he is a adulterous art thief who will lie to get whatever he wants or needs.

Headhunters also showcases two of Scandinavia’s best actors to the world. Aksel Hennie and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau are both sensational and either could slot into Hollywood with ease. Synnove Macody Lund can also hold her head up high. She debuts in this film and with her looks and talent I’m sure you will have producers lining up at her door to get her into their films.

This is one terrific thriller that fans of the genre shouldn’t miss. Truly stunning, Headhunters is a film that you will be telling your friends to go and see.

Year: 2012

Director: Morten Tyldum

Stars: Aksel Hennie, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Synnove Macody Lund

Classification: MA15+

Runtime: 100 mins

Rating: